Trump takes “no” for an answer

Earlier today, John discussed President Trump’s proposed compromise to end the partial government shutdown. As he notes, the Democrats rejected it out of hand.

Trump must have expected them to. The three years of relief for the DACA population falls far short of the Democrats’ goal. If the Dems are ever going to fund Trump’s wall, it will require far more substantial concessions than those Trump made today.

In pushing back against criticism of Trump’s proposal from the right, John observes, correctly I think, that the DACA population is never going to be deported. The Democrats understand this too. That’s why, from their perspective, Trump didn’t really offer them much today.

The Democrats’ want a path to citizenship for as many illegal immigrants as possible because they want as many immigrants as possible to be able to vote Democratic once they become citizens. Any proposal that doesn’t confer a path to citizenship for a sizable number of illegals will be dead on arrival, I think.

Trump understands this. The purpose of today’s proposal wasn’t to reach a compromise, it was to get the Democrats to say “no” to a proposal that some swing and/or independent voters might find reasonable.

What’s next? I don’t know. Perhaps Trump will get the Democrats to dismiss a few more compromise proposals out of hand, and then see if public opinion has moved in his favor. If he feels the stage has been adequately set, he might then declare an emergency at the border and try to build more wall without congressional approval.